Listen to the Koji
"We can't be leaving it up to the yeast!
Koji is perhaps the most enigmatic component of the sake world. The absolute coarsest definition of koji is “moldy rice,” although that does not come close to doing it justice. “Steamed rice onto which the mold aspergillus oryzae has been painstakingly propagated over two days” is a much more eloquently crafted albeit wordy description. But no matter how you define it, without koji there would be no sake.
We are reminded of its importance all the time. “Ichi-koji, ni-moto, san-tsukuri.” First in importance is the koji, second is the yeast starter, and third is the fermenting mash. Indeed, nothing exerts more leverage on how a given batch of sake will turn out than the koji. The way a brewer makes the koji will determine if the sake is sweet, dry, rich or light.
How does it do that? Basically by providing enzymes that convert starch to sugar, allowing the yeast to ferment it, and also by contributing a whole host of other things like amino acids and more that combine and interact to become the backbone of the flavor profile of a given sake. But the process is fraught with peril as well: make the koji less than perfectly and the resulting sake could be thin, stinky in any one of oh-so-many ways, or cloying.
Actually, at least scientifically, sake can be made without koji. Straight enzymes can be used, and rice can be liquified. But there are some legal requirements in place that specify that at least some koji must be used. But legal stipulations notwithstanding, the koji drives everything about how a sake is made, and how it will taste and smell. More attention to detail goes into the koji than any other step of the process.
There is a semi-retired sake consultant I run into all the time at tastings, let’s just call him Dr. T., who used to be a government assessor. Tasting sake was basically what he did – as a career. Folks like that can taste a sake and tell a brewer just what they can do in the process to make it better, and this guy was one of the best.
But lately he seems perpetually disappointed in almost everything he tastes. Surly, almost. When I run into him at tastings, we will great each other cheerfully, after which he launches into a rant something along the lines of “No one here knows how to make koji properly…”
One of the breweries under his care when he was active was Kusumi Shuzo in Niigata,
who make the sake Kiyoizumi (among other brands). It’s a sake from Niigata that I do not get to taste often enough. The company is famous in the industry as the brewery that revived the rice Kame-no-o, or at least the first widely-used manifestation of it. (It’s complicated both botanically and legally; but I digress.)
Their sake is perhaps just a bit richer than most sake from Niigata, and Kusumi-san, the owner / president ascribes that to the importance they place on the koji. He insists that they do it he old way, “properly,” and that is what makes their sake what it is. The last time I spoke to him at a yearly distributor’s tasting, he spoke of “
listening to the koji.”
“You have to listen to the koji,” he began. “If you listen to the market, to consumers or to other stuff too much, they’ll tell you what they like and that can take a brewer away from the basics.” He made it seem a bit like populism in sake brewing.
“So, we don’t do that anymore. Instead, we listen to the koji.” What he meant, of course, was that regardless of what other brewers might be doing to please the aroma-loving public, they stuck to their traditional basics, centered as they were around making proper koji. By doing so, he continued, they would stay true to their style and would be able to continue to make the great sake they have always made.
He continued, with conviction and pride, “When people that really understand sake go to the store to buy our sake, they actually go out of their way to look at the date on the bottle and buy the
oldest bottle on the shelf.” I dunno; a bit of hyperbole methinks. But his point is not lost on me; in fact, it is well taken.
“Because we listen to the koji as we make the sake, we know it will not only stand the test of time in the bottle, but actually be better because of it. We can’t be leaving it up to the yeast, you know. It’s the koji.”
That last little bomb about “not leaving it up to the yeast” was significant. He was subtly referring to how many modern popular sake are made using yeasts that yield prominent aromatics. While that is of course fine, sake like that does not age well; the compounds that lead to apple and tropical fruit nuances do not age gracefully. Often they become bitter and harsh. Age can do that.
But he was delicately and deftly stating how they do not just jump on the bandwagon of recently popular sake, and restating his commitment to their own way of brewing. “It’s the koji.”
Actually, making great sake is more than the koji. It’s, well, everything. Water, rice, technique, ad infinitum. But koji tops the list of priorities for minute attention to detail for a reason. And while it may be enigmatic to we mortals, that’s fine as long as the brewers understand it.
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How Old is the Industry?
How old is the current sake industry? How long have most of the currently active sake breweries been around? Not surprisingly, there are several ways to look at it. But let’s try to get a concise view of the industry as it is today, bearing in mind that it is in a constant state of flux and change.
There are currently about 1200 sakagura, or sake breweries, active in Japan. About. It really depends on how you count them, and who is doing the counting. There are about 1200 that are active; however, amongst those, there are perhaps a couple hundred that just buy product brewed elsewhere and sell it as their own. (This way of doing things call for an article of its own, so we’ll save the explanation for that.)
Also, there are a couple hundred or so that have licenses but are inactive. And, there are a couple of bottling companies that legally must have a license too, but do not brew. So including them would bolster the number as well. And there are companies with multiple licenses, and some companies that brew but not every single year, and a handful of other statistic sticklers on top of that.
But to simplify things, there are about 1200 active sakagura in Japan now. How long have most of them been around?
Before answering that, we need to point out that the statistics are grouped by era in Japan. Sure, we could transcribe all those to western years, but that’s no fun. So firstly let us look at era names in Japan.
Basically, eras are named after the emperor that reigned in the respective time frame. But sometimes, chunks of time are named for political eras. For example, the Edo era ran from 1604 to 1868, and was named after the capital city, Edo, which later was renamed Tokyo. This span of 264 years was one of relative stability as it was governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, a long string of shogun that basically handed power down from father to son.
Within that 264 years there were several emperors, and the eras within the Edo era are also known by their imperial names as well. But the main point here is that the Edo era is something that is commonly referred to in Japan, but before and in particular after that eras are named for the emperor that reigned then.
So let us look at how many sake breweries
that are still active today were founded in each of these eras.
Pre-Edo (before proper records were kept): 14
Edo era (1604-1868): 399
Meiji era (1868-1912): 431
Taisho era (1912-1926): 119
Showa era (1926-1989): 266
Heisei era (1989- April 30, 2019): 25
Meiwa era, the current era, which began May 1: 0
This means there are 431 companies founded between 1868 and 1912 that are still making sake, and 399 that were founded sometime between 1604 and 1868 that are still active as well. That’s some serious longevity.
There are reasons behind some of the above statistics. For example, in the Meiji era, tax from sake was the largest source of the government’s revenue, since personal income tax did not yet exist. And Japan was involved in a couple of wars back then, with Russia and China. So the government actually went to companies that made shoyu (soy sauce) – since they already had big tanks and lots of space – and directly requested that they begin to brew sake as well. This is one reason for the large number of breweries founded in that era.
In fact, although the short listing above does not show it, there are 903 active sakagura in Japan that are over a hundred years old. That means that 72 percent of the industry is a century old or more.
Back in 1988 there were about 2500 breweries, and before the war they numbered over 5000 spread across Japan. Clearly, many more have closed down over the years than have remained active. It is not possible to know how old each of them were when they closed down, of course, but chances are they some of the older breweries of their time.
The industry loses a couple of breweries each year. That rate of attrition seems to be slowing, i.e. we lost many more each year in the decades of the second half of the 20th century. But things are still contracting.
Yet looked at another way, the sake industry is one of remarkable durability and endurance. Let’s do our best to help that continue on for a few centuries more.
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Obituary for Koichi Moriya
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While I have never used this email newsletter as a space for an obituary before, I would like to now. It is with sadness that I convey that Mr. Koichi Moriya, the toji at Asamai Shuzo, brewers of Amanoto sake, passed away suddenly on July 30th at 61.
He was born into a farming family and carried that torch. Along the way he hooked up with a former schoolmate, Hidemori Kakizaki, who became the president of Asamai Shuzo. Moriya-san became his toji and the charismatic duo made huge strides in popularizing their sake, Akita sake, and craft sake in general.
Moriya-san passed away after collapsing while working in the rice fields. He lived his life with great congruence, which was evident up until he passed away. He really was amazing: author, chef, photographer, rice farmer, and master brewer. And add husband, father and friend to many to that list as well. The reverberations throughout the sake world have been quite notable.
Actually, Asamai Shuzo lost their president – Moriya-san’s classmate – to cancer a few years ago. Our loss is heaven’s gain, as there are now two more charismatic angels, and much better sake for sure. Should you have a chance, please raise a glass of sake to Moriya-san, and Kakizaki-san while you’re at it.
I have worked for just about a quarter century in and around the sake industry, but I have always known I did not have what it takes to work in a brewery myself, neither the constitution nor the physical or mental stamina. But I always maintained that if I ever did change my mind and want to try, Moriya-san would be the toji under whom I would like to give it a shot. Serious yet light-hearted, traditional yet open-minded, talented, funny, spontaneous and kind.
Because my company exports Ama no To to the United States, I have been privileged to spend a good amount of time at the kura and with Moriya-san here and there. Needless to say he is already missed by many, including myself. May he rest in peace.
